Cactus Club
by Jimmy the Gothic Egg
Summary: Where secret societies meet cactus juice. We all know who to blame for this one.


Slightly inspired by the Breakfast Club, the White Lotus Society, and the thought of all the Avatar characters getting high together.

I don't normally do this because I'd like people to find out for themselves before they throw away a perfectly good story, but **pairings within this story** are slightly off-color. See, I plan to take it from the beginning, so there will be some **Katara/Jet**, some **Sokka/Suki**, some **Katara/Zuko** (but not until after the Katara/Jet), **some of this, some of that, and a little in between.**

My crafty mind speaks wonders. Away we are.

**Future-set, same character names, AU.**

_The Cactus Club_

**Chapter One: Secret Societies**

Within the Earth Kingdom, there is a city called Tsen, which is not quite as big as Ba Sing Se, but one of the biggest. Within its walls houses the Adnot High School, named for the Avatar that supposedly used his bending to break one of the islands of the Fire Nation crescent and collide it with oncoming ships, though the truth of this is often debated among scholarly circles, which claims home to a fine library that is boasted to be the finest within a five mile radius. It is not stated that if one calculated the five mile radius, they would find the walls to the city. No one really thought of this, because no one really bothered to step outside the city walls and find a better library.

Katara quite liked the library inside.

An unknowing soul would question the presence of a Water Tribe girl within the city. They would ask why she kept residence here instead of the Water Tribes. They would feel quite embarrassed, as people often do when they ask these types of questions, because her answer would be simple: she had no Water Tribe to return to. In fact, the entire Southern Tribe had died out, except for a few. Those who attempted to make it to their sister tribe were unfortunately stopped by storms they could not overcome. Many that had managed to make it past that decided it was safer to stop in the Earth Kingdoms. Katara and her brother had traveled a long way until they found a safe haven; some of their family had not made it. Their Gran-Gran had, however, but, according to Sokka, she was immortal. The woman had already reached sixty without so much as stopping to complain of her old age. They had suspicions she would reach her hundreds before letting go of her world, or at least until her grandchildren could care for themselves.

Katara was fourteen; Sokka was fifteen. They had no parents to speak for.

But the library was nice.

There were tomes and scrolls and books she could read for hours on end. Right now she was working on a dreadfully boring history assignment about the Hundred Year War and the defeat of the Fire Nation. She was supposed to be anyway. She wasn't actually, but that didn't matter.

What mattered was she had found the room.

It was a special room. There were five of them: soundproof rooms the library held for study, using the computers for things that involved sound, or general meetings. She'd actually snuck over to watch a few videos because her stupid brother kept hogging the very stupid and slow computer at home, and she didn't think anyone would mind. The first booth was being occupied by a guy, a girl, and a guitar; the second one by two lonesome teenagers; the third by a short girl who was staring at the computer screen through dark sunglasses; and the fourth by a tired looking teen with a whiny looking kid. The fifth booth had no occupied sign, and as far as she could tell there was no one inside. So she pushed open the door, closed it securely and locking it so people knew it was in use, and turned around where she hoped the computer would be.

Six boys, seating in a ring around the small table, are staring at her.

_I really should've seen this coming._

---

There's something about secret societies that's just not so secret anymore. When they first start, sure there's the anonymity of it, but after they put important people in important place, corrupting an untainted society to better serve them or their people (sometimes both, or they would have you believe), and basically overrunning the place until they're caught up and dealt with until their society sinks back into a squalor few, that's when history catches up, and your secret society's not so secret anymore. Somehow the History Channel gets the inner workings of your facility, the names of the suspected highest members, and every secret is unraveled like a ball of yarn.

So Jet kept his society an actual secret.

It was kind of like a club with a special invitation. His friends got theirs, and they sat back, deciding how to split the world once they ruled it.

Or something like that.

They kept their nicknames more than anything else. Jet was the leader, and then there was Sneers, Smellerbee, Longshot, Pipsqueak, and Duke. They hung out, discussed their roguish ways, and basically earned their street cred while they could.

No one knew they existed. That was the point.

Still, he hadn't expected a girl to walk through the door.

Pipsqueak was supposed to lock it, stupid thug.

"Need something?" he asked curtly. The girl blinked, stared, blink. She had pretty blue eyes. You didn't often see blue here.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Thought it was empty."

"Well it's not," gnashed Duke.

"_Sorry,_" she repeated with an edge this time. Jet liked girls with edges.

"We could be done," he said, leaning back in his chair. "The computer's right there if you need to use it."

"It's cool," she said, reaching for the door handle. "I can use an unoccupied space."

Longshot stared at a Jet a minute. Jet nodded, understanding perfectly. Longshot turned to Smellerbee, who rolled her eyes. She stood up, moving towards the door. The girl backed away a bit, obviously intimidated.

"I'm just getting the door for you," Smellerbee snapped. She'd been fumbling with it. The girl bit her lip and hid a blush.

"Sit a while," Jet pointed to a chair. He stood up himself, striding quickly to take the girl's arm.

Smellerbee clicked the door open, waiting. It was a game Jet liked to play. Make a girl want to leave but be unable to. Boosted his ego a bit. She thought it was annoying, but she was biased.

"I'm Jet," he said.

"Katara," the girl answered slowly.

She sat down.

**Notes:**

There be chapter one. Arrrrgh.

I sleep now. Me tired.

**Reviews make the sheep not trip on the fence.**


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